Steady Pace Needed For Steady Roll-Out

This month has been filled with a flurry of activity. The imminent mash-up of EMV and NFC mobile payments for consumers and merchants has me simultaneously feeling optimistic about the future and pessimistic about the outcome. I’m enthusiastic about the new payments tools we have and yet have a sense of foreboding about the lack of experience in using the tools. I find myself wishing that we could move faster and worrying if there is enough time to get everything right. Then I realize I need to take a step back and think about things logically and rationally. I begin to listen to the experienced experts and not be influenced by news reports or industry analysts who seem to be delivering projections without solid facts supporting those projections. So, here’s my relatively simple observation. I believe the correct path for the roll-out of EMV is to keep it easy and low cost for everyone, and then it can happen relatively quickly. Mobile payments should come after EMV and not be too closely intertwined with EMV at the start. I say this with complete sincerity, that sometimes we look for obstacles when there are none and seek solutions to the wrong set of problems. There are times when things fall into place the way they were meant to be. Please feel free to contact me if you have questions, or simply want to talk about all the great things happening in our industry. As always, thank you for your support of the Alliance.

Sincerely,

Randy Vanderhoof
Executive Director, Smart Card Alliance